Top Ten Best Horror Movies Ever

[johmica]

My arbitrary rules: I'm not talking about historical import - of course, Nosferatu and Psycho are important films. I'm talking about this scenario - you are a horror aficionado, and you're trying to impress a girl with a recommendation of front-to-back, the best, most entertaining horror movie ever made. My list, in no particular order:

1. The Exorcist
2. Hereditary
3. Poltergeist
4. The Babadook
5. The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix series - a cheat, I know. But it's my game)
6. Return of the Living Dead
7. An American Werewolf in London
8. The Thing
9. The Shining
10. Evil Dead II

Honorary mentions:

1. The Conjuring II
2. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
3. Silence of the Lambs (missed the list, because it's only horror-adjacent)
4. Jaws (same reason as #3)
5. Halloween (2007) (most of Rob Zombie's stuff is crap, but the first half of this movie is perfect)
6. A Nightmare on Elm St.

What did I miss? Again, no artsy-fartsy answers wanted. What is really, really good, and stands the test of time, that didn't make my list? What's your list?

 

[Fluddman]

I'd have 'The Omen' in the top ten somewhere.

 

[johmica]

I'd have 'The Omen' in the top ten somewhere.

I definitely thought about that one. And the remake is solid, too.

 

[Michael Smith]

From your list I've only seen the Shining and Jaws start to finish. So for me the Shining is #1.

 

[Vibroluxer]

The Conjuring, the 1st one is quite good.

 

[johmica]

From your list I've only seen the Shining and Jaws start to finish. So for me the Shining is #1.

Well, then, much like the make-believe girl from my initial post, I would try to impress you by recommending that you go through the list, and watch them all. Evil Dead II and Return of the Living Dead are kind of nostalgia picks, and probably not for someone like yourself, who isn't a tried-and-true horror fan. But the rest, I'd recommend to anyone.

 

[Tomm Williams]

The Thing
From Dusk till Dawn
30 Days of Night

 

[Engine Swap]

Let the Right One In

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Phantasm

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Ten Little Indians (1965)

Jacobs Ladder

Videodrome

Rosemary’s Baby

Night of the Living Dead (1965)

Alien

 

[northernguitar]

28 Days Later
The Fly (Cronenberg)
Videodrome
Hellraiser
A Quiet Place
Alien
Re-Animator

 

[johmica]

The Thing
From Dusk till Dawn
30 Days of Night

I've grown averse to Tarantino after The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time (didn't care for Django, either), so my opinion of From Dusk til Dawn is biased. (I do the same thing with Bob Dylan - he's clearly a genius, but he was such a poop (many, many banned adjectives come to mind) that I can't enjoy his music). I used to be crazy about that movie - Clooney is brilliant in it (and a Kentucky boy, to boot). But I just can't watch Tarantino on screen for two hours.

30 Days of Night should have made my honorable mentions. I don't know what movie in the Top 10 that it could usurp, but it definitely holds its own with Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot.

 

[buster poser]

80s kid, obvious biases apply

Evil Dead
The Shining (Kubrick)
Evil Dead II
Hellraiser
The Exorcist
Hereditary
A Nightmare on Elm Street
From Beyond
Ringu/The Ring
Wolfen

 

[39martind18]

Plan 9 From Outer Space- it's an absolute horror to watch, the acting is a horror, the plotline is a horror, production is a horror, etc.

 

[johmica]

Let the Right One In

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Phantasm

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Ten Little Indians (1965)

Jacobs Ladder

Videodrome

Let the Right One In is great, but not Top 10 for me. It Follows is another one in that camp.

Phantasm falls in the "Psycho" category. I watched it as a teen, and it's soooo important for the genre, but I wouldn't want to make a friend endure it, unless they were a connoiseur like myself.

I don't know Ten Little Indians. Homework assignment accepted.

Again, Jacob's Ladder takes a special kind of viewer. Angel Heart is another movie like that, from a comparable time period.

 

[northernguitar]

Drag Me To Hell was a lot of fun. Does Starship Troopers count as a horror movie?

 

[johmica]

80s kid, obvious biases apply

Evil Dead
The Shining (Kubrick)
Evil Dead II
Hellraiser
The Exorcist
Hereditary
A Nightmare on Elm Street
From Beyond
Ringu/The Ring
Wolfen

Solid list!!!! Did you see The Beast Within?

 

[johmica]

Drag Me To Hell was a lot of fun. Does Starship Troopers count as a horror movie?

I wouldn't call Starship Troopers "horror." Arbitrary call, but I'd call it "Sci-Fi Action."

 

[gridlock]

The 1st Alien Movie would rank high with me.

 

[johmica]

The 1st Alien Movie would rank high with me.

It's so good.

 

[Stringlover]

I really only have one and that the original Halloween. I saw that in a full, big movie theater and everyone was screaming together. It was great.

 

[johmica]

I really only have one and that the original Halloween. I saw that in a full, big movie theater and everyone was screaming together. It was great.

John Carpenter is another Kentucky boy, so I love him to death. But Halloween is the worst of the slasher genre, in my opinion. The first, so important, but the worst. At least Freddy had character, and Jason had boobs. Michael Meyers had neither.

That's why Rob Zombie's remake made the honorable mention - the psychology of the mask in the first half was retcon genius.